This invention relates generally to material handling equipment for longitudinally receiving hot rolled products from a rolling mill, and for laterally transferring such products onto the receiving end of a carryover cooling bed.
The invention is particularly suited for although not limited to the handling of smaller sized products, such as for example round bars ranging in diameter from about 8 to 20 mm, as well as comparably sized shaped products such as angles, squares, etc. Such products normally exit from the mill at speeds on the order of 10 m/sec. and higher, and at elevated temperatures above about 900.degree. C. Under these conditions, the products are quite limber and are very susceptible to bending, kinking and cobbling.
FIG. 1 is illustrative of a typical equipment layout at the delivery end of a rolling mill. The hot rolled products exit from the finishing mill 10 and are subdivided by a conventional switch/shear combination 12 into shorter lengths which are alternately directed along first and second parallel paths A, B. Decelerators 14a, 14b which typically may comprise conventional pinch rolls, decelerate the subdivided product lengths as they are received on a run-in table 16. After coming to rest, the product lengths are transferred from the run-in table onto a carryover cooling bed 18, where they are progressively shifted laterally in the direction of arrow 20 as they undergo cooling prior to further processing.
FIG. 2 is illustrative of a conventional prior art run-in table. Here, a hollow support beam 22 extends longitudinally over the receiving end of the carryover cooling bed 18. The cooling bed is of well known conventional design, having mutually spaced stationary racks 18' with cyclically movable carryover racks 18" interspersed therebetween. The beam 22 is suspended from an overlying support structure 24, and cooling water is circulated through its interior. Pivotal side flaps 26 cooperate with opposite sides of the beam to enclose the first and second parallel guide paths A, B along which successive longitudinally moving product lengths are alternately deflected by the upstream switch/shear combination 12. After the product lengths slide to a stop in their respective guide paths, the side flaps are opened (as indicated at the right hand side of FIG. 2) to thereby drop the product lengths through a distance of about 450-600 mm. onto the spaced racks of the underlying cooling bed.
A major problem with this type of arrangement is that when handling smaller products such as for example 8 or 10 mm. round bars, the vertical drop from the guide paths A, B onto the cooling bed racks is often enough to put a series of kinks into the bars. This design is also unduly complicated by its overhead support structure, which usually includes a cumbersome array of heavy stanchions and girders. In addition, the operating mechanisms employed to manipulate the side flaps 26 are prone to seizing up as a result of exposure to heat rising from hot bars being transferred across the underlying table.